Oh, maaaan. NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me featured this company last week (panelists had to guess which of the three ludicrous products for kids was, in fact, not a spoof) - but I must not have been listening and/or they must not have identified it as from PDX.

Frank Dufay I don't know, I'm a pretty liberal guy...but that's apparel that's appalling.
Dressing up your baby as a "junior pimp?" Giving your toddler "street cred?"JK: But Frank, they are just starting early at becoming part of Portlandâ€™s vibrant street life. Add a few drugs and guns and they will blend in perfectly on the transit mall. They could add aggressive panhandling to their skill set to achieve perfect vibrancy!

Sorry, I forgot to say that the crowd over there has a problem with the words "whore and pimp", but doesn't seem to have a problem playing the first when Goldscmidt and company play the latter. You might help them add these useful words to their vocabulary.

When my nieces were smaller, they would show up at my house wearing these kinds of t-shirts, THONG underwear (my God) and sexy streetwalker attire, including inappropriate HEELED shoes. My ex-sister-in-law was having a severe mid-life crisis and living it out on her kids.

I battled it by having a change of "play clothes" (underwear, clothes, shoes) ready and waiting so we could go outside and get our hands dirty in the garden or on the playset at the park or riding on our bicycles.

What I'm trying to say is that this stuff is not new; just getting more mainstream which is so sickening. I feel like my entire life of feminism has been negated by our sick culture. And, as everyone knows, culture trumps policy every time.

But, y'know, it is hard out there, and its hard for us parents too, figuring out how not to make things harder.

I listened to a long stretch of Tupac this morning, taking four boys to basketball. Pretty rough stuff, some of it. Anne won't let Parker play that stuff in the car; I figure its better to know what they're listening to...sometimes, though, I feel like I'm being tested, how far I'll let them go.

Teenage boys, finding themselves is one thing. Selling weird stuff to toddlers, though...I just don't get that one. Anne sees a silver cloud, maybe...all the 'ho and pimp stuff will just get so ridiculous it'll finally be totally uncool and go away.

I'm not so keen on "isms" or knee-jerk reactions. Mixed systems can work very well. I have cousins in the Republic of Ireland who say that, while the national heath system is not perfect, it functions well as a safety net. Something we could use here, imho.

But I do see the "statist" tendencies in that Lee notes as something that should concern us. Until a few weeks ago when I changed my voter registration to independent, I was a Democrat; yet, when I would critique government agencies and actions, I would have people trying to make me out as some kind of ant-government extremist. That sort of thing, and a press that doesn't seemed really interested in the deeper questions about government is something that should concern us all. When we end up with government employees, including prosecutors, who are agents of a certain segment of society,where dissent isn't tolerated, then we have are on the road toward a kind of fascism. And I love Monty Python, but a strictly pro-government press that doesn't respect critics and criticism ain't funny.

Road Work

Miles run year to date: 155
At this date last year: 241
Total run in 2015: 271
In 2014: 401
In 2013: 257
In 2012: 129
In 2011: 113
In 2010: 125
In 2009: 67
In 2008: 28
In 2007: 113
In 2006: 100
In 2005: 149
In 2004: 204
In 2003: 269